Harwinder Sandhu, MLA for Vernon-Lumby and Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture; Lana Popham, , Minister of Agriculture and Food; and Liz Blakeway, Executive Director of Land to Table, alongside a pallet of food they packed at the new Food Shed warehouse (photo by Liam Verster / Vernon Matters)

By Liam Verster

Food Storage, Distribution

Provincial investment to boost food infrastructure, security in the North Okanagan

Mar 17, 2025 | 2:15 PM

The B.C. Government is taking steps to bolster critical food infrastructure in the area.

Though the $14-million Critical Food Infrastructure Fund, the North Okanagan Land to Table Network Society will receive $1-million.

“This [provincial funding] is helping communities to build, buy and improve warehouse storage and equipment; to buy refrigerated vehicles to transport food, as we are all aware of the accessibility of food in some places, and for some people in remote communities is could seem dire; and also any equipment that we need to preserve and process food for an extended shelf-life,” Harwinder Sandhu, MLA for Vernon-Lumby and parliamentary secretary for agriculture, said.

“A significant part of this funding will help kick-start projects in a few communities, and I’m pleased to announce that one such project will be centered here in this warehouse.”

The Society will use the money to upgrade a cold-storage Food Shed warehouse that will support the distribution of nutritious food for those in need across multiple regions.

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The local project funding will mostly be used to upgrade Food Shed warehouse in Armstrong where the food will be collected, combined, processed, stored, and marketed.

“We’re building a 2,500 square foot processing room [within the warehouse] that will house primary processing equipment, such as chopping, grating, slicing, dicing, bagging, so that we can freeze produce when we need to and allows us for year round supply of local food,” Liz Blakeway, Executive Director of Land to Table, said.

Some of the money will also be used to ensure the food is distributed to food banks, schools, institutions, food banks, and non-profit organizations both in and outside the region, along with covering some staffing, marketing and systems development costs.

The project will ensure there is food set aside for groups and programs to access year-round, while also supporting the local and regional agricultural sector.

“We are creating a wholesale market opportunity for our local farmers, many of them go to farmers’ markets but we know that those are saturated. By giving them a wholesale market opportunity we’re giving them the opportunity to diversify their sales,” Blakeway said.

“We’re doing bulk purchasing of produce and then bulk distribution of produce, that also lowers the costs and makes it more affordable for our social service agencies and for our non-profits.”

Blakeway noted they were focused on just local produce at the time, such as apples, carrots and potatoes, though the Society may look to expand to meat products in the future.

The processing station in the warehouse was estimated to be built and operational by the spring of 2026.